


Thank God, He's Mine

by FeralCreed



Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Family Relations, Father son relationship, Gen, Howlett clan, L2R characters, Sibling Relationship, father daughter relationship, written for Elli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 18:44:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11167818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralCreed/pseuds/FeralCreed
Summary: Rictor is determined to find his DNA donor. Impressed by Laura's and Logan's relationship, he goes in search of Dominikos Petrakis. But things don't turn out nearly as well as he had hoped.Un-beta'd and written at like 3 in the morning. So there's bound to be mistakes. I'll check on them after like at least six hours of sleep.





	Thank God, He's Mine

“I want to find my father.”

 

Logan knew he was going to hear something like that as soon as he'd caught the boy's scent, but still. He can't help a resigned sigh as he looks up. “I already told you, kid,” he says. “Not a good idea.”

 

Rictor just glares at him. “I want to find my father,” he repeats firmly. “He has to be out there!”

 

“'Out there' and 'wanting you' are two different things.” Two very different things. And he wasn't sure that it would be all too smart to let the kid just show up at his dad's place without warning the guy first. Logan hadn't been ready for fatherhood himself when Laura had suddenly popped into his life, but he'd been willing to step up to the plate. Or at least stubborn and loyal enough that he'd refused to give her up.

 

And the thing with Rictor's dad was... He wasn't a good man. Logan had done his best to look into all the Transigen kids' donors as they'd found them. Eventually they were going to ask questions about where they'd come from, he knew that, and he'd rather have some information on hand. Dominikos Petrakis was, by all accounts, a small time criminal who had used his powers to be nothing more than a mercenary. Logan wasn't a hundred percent against that, truth be told, but he knew Rictor. No matter what kind of life his father offered him, the boy would take it. Family was important to him, and even though the kid loved Laura, he'd been searching for his blood family from almost the second they'd brought him back to the school.

 

“Help me or I'll go myself,” Rictor said stubbornly, folding his arms across his chest.

 

Teenagers. “Fine. But if you go running off looking for your father, I'm leading the mission. And you _listen_ to me. Understand? Even if I tell you we have to pull back.”

 

“Fine.” It's said after a moment of hesitation, but Logan knows that Rictor is being honest. The boy might be a compulsive minor thief, and lie for any reason in the book, but he'll keep his word.

 

“Professor will find him by tomorrow. We'll leave right after breakfast.” They've been keeping vague tabs on criminally inclined mutants, and Dominikos is unfortunately one of those mutants. Charles will probably be able to locate the man within an hour, but there's more to it than that. Logan is slightly concerned that the man might pose a danger to the boy, whether immediate or through a gradual demise of character.

 

Rictor nods at him and disappears out of the room. He's more talkative than Laura, but hardly a chatterbox. Logan might as well get to things with Charles. It'll be a bit over an hour before he's finished here, but better then than never. A good half of things will probably be convincing Charles that he won't let any harm come to the kid, even though he's legally the boy's guardian. Someone had to do it, and he'd already taken Laura on, so he figured he might as well. Not that either of the younger ones know.

 

By the time he makes it downstairs the next morning, Rictor is waiting. That doesn't surprise him in the slightest. He doesn't seem much interested in eating, but Logan isn't about to skip food for the wants of a half-feral child. Wants that are probably going to be very severely dropped.

 

“All right, let's go,” he says finally. Rictor is halfway to the hangar before Logan is out of his chair.

 

The Blackbird is fueled and ready in no time. Rictor waits impatiently while Logan goes over the necessary checks, then lifts off, the basketball court sliding aside to let them take to the sky. Charles had located Dominikos, arranged a meeting between the three of him near his Wisconsin hideout. Maybe hideout wasn't technically the right word, but Logan didn't trust or like the man enough to call it anything else.

 

It's clear that Rictor is nervous. Logan had suggested they didn't tell Laura about it, and as far as he knows, neither of them had. The lack of Spanish yowling throughout the school was a good indication of that. Neither of them speak during the flight, or the short drive after he touches down at the closest airfield. Even though they're supposedly here on friendly terms, he keeps the recall button for the jet in his jean pocket.

 

“We're meeting your dad at a coffee shop down the street. He said he'd be here on his own.” Logan realises he's nervous himself. Not on his own behalf, he's too indestructible for that, but he's worried for Rictor in case he and his donor don't get along. Charles hadn't said a word about the man's receptiveness in the children department. Maybe he hadn't warned him.

 

Dominikos is waiting for them at the cafe. Logan points him out to Rictor and the boy stiffens up like he got zapped. He would've bolted right across the damn street if Logan hadn't collared him, though, so clearly he has no more common sense than he usually does. Once they get there, Dominikos looks up at them with visible suspicion.

 

“James Howlett,” Logan introduces himself. “This is Julio Richter.”

 

“Mr Howlett. You said you had some substantial information for me.” He doesn't acknowledge Rictor with more than a cursory glance.

 

“I do. May I?” Logan gestures toward the other chairs at the table. Dominikos nods and Logan sits down, nudging a chair out for Rictor with his foot. The boy's staring at his father like the man is a three-headed alien. “About six months ago, a couple friends of mine escaped from a facility in Mexico that was breeding mutants. Raising child soldiers. Julio's one of 'em. We had some evidence that suggested his mutant DNA donor was a man named Dominikos Petrakis. You donated blood at a Utah hospital about fifteen years ago, to a hematological study headed by a Dr Kinney, got paid eighty bucks for it. Not a bad payout.”

 

He pulled an envelope out of his coat pocket and slid a paper across the table. “These are your lab results from the study. And these,” another paper, “are from recent work done on Julio's blood. While he's not a clone, there's an 86% genetic match. Your blood was used by Dr Kinney at that Mexico facility. So far Rictor is the only one we've found that's linked to you.”

 

“So you're saying that this is my son.” Dominikos looks unimpressed, Rictor looks hopeful. Logan can't blame either one of them much. He goes on to outline a little more of what they know, provides pictures of Dominikos and Kinney at the hospital, camera footage trail from Utah to Mexico, the Transigen facility itself. By the end of it, the other man seems to be considering things a little more strongly.

 

“You said six months ago. Why now instead of before, if you knew?”

 

“Our people wanted to make sure you guys were related before we dropped a kid on you. We're willing to keep responsibility for him if you're not interested.”

 

“Por supuesto que está interesado, es mi padre,” Rictor grumbles at him.

 

“English,” Logan reminds him.

 

“Kid might be right, might be wrong. Hell if I know what he said. But what do you want from me?” The last sentence is the first one addressed to Rictor himself.

 

“I wanted to meet you.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because we're family.”

 

Logan admires the kid for staring his dad down like he does. He's just not sure what Dominikos is thinking of all this. He can't blame the guy for having some reservations, but he'd expected Charles to give him a heads up. _Thanks, Prof._ With that in mind, things are going great. Nobody's bleeding or on fire yet.

 

“We're blood. You can't be family without knowing someone.” Dominikos shrugs a little, evidently set in his ideals. “So tell me about yourself.”

 

That's more promising. And Rictor, though he's a little hesitant at first, starts talking. He doesn't say anything that would lead Dominikos straight to the school, for which Logan is a little proud of him, but he's still wordy. His dad has a thoughtful look on his face as he listens and eventually cuts in when Rictor pauses.

 

“So you wanna crew with your old man, huh?” he asks. The wording puts Logan on edge, but Rictor is nodding eagerly. Kids. “Wasn't figuring to meet anybody but some X-Man. This makes things different. Different in a good way, too.” Rictor visibly perks up at that. “How do you feel about coming with me, huh?”

 

It's exactly the right thing to say. “Yeah,” Rictor agrees eagerly. Logan is very suspicious about the man being so accepting but maybe that's just his nature talking. But one of them should be suspicious, and it's clearly not going to be the boy that's reuniting with his father.

 

“All right, then,” Dominikos says with a decisive nod. “I think I'd like that.” They make small talk, stuff that's not really out of the ordinary. Just a few minutes later Logan feels the barrel of a weapon against the back of his head. “I'd really appreciate it if you didn't put my son in the line of fire. Even if we don't really know each other yet, I'd hate to never get the chance.”

 

“What are you doing?” Rictor asks, voice shaking.

 

“You never know when a bargaining chip will come in handy. Especially with the X-Men. I meant it when I said I'd like you to come with me, son. We're family, like you said.”

 

“Logan's my family too. And Laura.”

 

“They're not your blood. We're just about the same, you and me, boy. And that means we could make a hell of a life together.” Dominikos stands up like it's totally normal to have Logan at gunpoint while he was his first conversation with his son. “I'm not gonna hurt your friend here. But I'm also not going to let him take you away from me.”

 

“Logan would let me stay if I wanted to.”

 

“Not after this, I wouldn't.” Logan isn't that crazy, and Laura would about kill him anyway.

 

“And here I thought you said your name was James. Logan of the X-Men? You wouldn't happen to be the Wolverine, now would you? Because that'd be a hell of a catch.”

 

“Let him go,” Rictor says.

 

“They're not much for teaching you to respect your elders, are they?”

 

“I respect people that deserve it. And you don't.” Rictor's voice breaks on the last word, and Logan would be able to tell how hard it was for the boy to say that if he was deaf and blind.

 

“Well, I'm guessing that will change in time. So why don't we get around to leaving, son? I'm sure your X-pals are going to want the Wolverine back.”

 

“They'll want me back, too.”

 

“I'm sure they'll settle with being disappointed on one count. Let's not make it on two. You're not going to get hurt, son, not by me. So let's go on home now.”

 

“No!” Rictor yells, standing up. His chair topples over behind him and scrapes against the concrete floor. “My dad wouldn't do this.”

 

“Do what? Give you a better life? Raise you to take over what he started?”

 

“I won't be like you.”

 

“I bet you already are, boy. I bet you already lie and steal around your place you're living now. Slip out of getting into trouble by saying you didn't do it, by saying someone else did. Cause you're me. Got my blood, got my wants. Yeah, I can see it in you.”

 

“That boy's worth more than you can imagine,” Logan growls. “He could do far worse and be ten times the man you'd dream to be.”

 

“Doesn't matter. He's mine by blood. And you're just the man trying to hold him back from what could rightfully be his.”

 

“No he's _not_ ,” Rictor cries. He flips the table over onto his father, anger getting the best of him, and the force of his powers throws the older man into the street. They can hear Dominikos swearing from where they stand but Rictor, for the first time, doesn't care about his blood father.

 

Logan jumps up as a gunshot echoes through the shop. The impact of the bullet makes him stumble sideways and he falls to one knee. The bloodstain spreading over the left side of his shirt scares Rictor until he gets back up. His claws come out as he turns, stabbing the shooter through the chest and flinging him to the side with a flick of his wrist. “You chose the wrong job, bub.”

 

He grabs Rictor's arm and hurries him out of the shop and down the street, pressing the recall button for the Blackbird as they go. There's more yelling from behind them, but if they can't outrun them, Logan can outfight them. But when someone catches up to them, it's Rictor who stops them. He steps forward and places his palm against the man's chest, summoning his powers to fling him backward. Logan is more than half ready to follow that up with some stabbing, but he needs to get the kid out of there.

 

Fortunately the Blackbird shows up in no time, setting down in the middle of the street. Logan all but carries him up the ramp, because despite everything, Rictor can't help but wonder. The ramp goes up and the jet automatically takes off toward the school. Even though Logan goes right to the cockpit to check in with the school, Rictor stands in the cargo hold for a minute, shaken by everything that had happened.

 

“You all right, kid?” Logan asks, coming up behind him.

 

“I thought...” Rictor doesn't know how to finish that sentence. Logan hesitates a moment, then puts a hand on his shoulder. The boy turns in an instant, burying his face in the older man's shirt and wrapping his arms around him. “I'm sorry I was wrong, Dad,” he apologised, almost crying. “I thought he'd want me.”

 

Logan sighs a little and rubs a hand up and down his back. “Could've gone worse. It's all right. It's all right, son.” He stands there patiently as Rictor starts crying, doing the best he can to reassure him. By the end of it, he can practically smell the heartbreak on the boy. “Don't worry, we'll figure it out.”

 

Eventually Rictor pulls back, rubbing the back of his hand across his eyes. He goes off to sit down near the ramp and Logan leaves him be. It will take a while to get back to the school. And he knows that the boy could use the time to think about things. Rather than trying to talk to him or anything, he goes to change his shirt and check the damage to his jacket. Besides giving the boy a heads up when they're five minutes out from the school, they don't speak. When they get closer, Rictor stands up, holding onto one of the overhead straps.

 

“Oh, and by the way,” Logan says right after they land. “You're a helluva good kid, Rictor. Your blood father didn't turn out to be much but I reckon things will look better eventually.” Rictor doesn't say anything in reply but he gives the older man a thoughtful, grateful look. 

 

Laura is waiting for them when they get into the school proper. She immediately starts shrieking in Spanish, but cuts off her tirade around the fourth or fifth sentence to stare at them. Her expression registers confusion, and Rictor stops, not having expected this.

 

“Hola, Laura,” he says softly.

 

“Where did you go?” she asks. She's clearly picked up on the fact that something's changed between Rictor and Logan, and also obviously has no idea quite what that is.

 

“Charles and Logan found my donor. My Logan. But he...” Rictor stops talking and looks up at Logan, wordlessly asking him to fill in the rest of it.

 

“Dominikos turned out to be a lowlife crook that wanted to kidnap Rictor and use me as a bargaining chip with the X-Men,” Logan says. “It ended up in shooting. Rictor didn't get hurt and I only got shot once.” Laura still doesn't look entirely sure but Logan beckons her over. She clatters down the steps and rams into him, wrapping her arms around his ribs. “You too, bub.” He drags Rictor into the hug.

 

“Now what?” Laura asks. Rictor is pretty sure she's afraid of something, though he's not sure what exactly. He never would have guessed that she was afraid of him replacing her in Logan's affections.

 

“Reckon you two are mine, now,” Logan says fondly. He ruffles both their hair and grins when he gets matching annoyed looks. “Don't reckon either of you want ice cream, do ya?” They beat him into the kitchen by a mile, and by the time he saunters in after them, Laura is perched on a stool by the counter. Rictor is standing behind her and leaning into her shoulder like a typical older brother. Logan sets a carton of ice cream on the counter between them and gets out a pair of spoons, sliding them over toward them.

 

He grabs a soda out of the fridge for himself and cracks the top off against the counter. Something Charles is already mentally yelling at him for, but oh well. It's not like he's going to break anything. “You two gonna get along?” he asked. Laura glares at him and Rictor hisses under his breath, then cracks a grin.

 

Yeah, they're gonna get along well, real well. Logan grabs a spoon of his own and grabs a sizeable chunk of cookies-n-cream. Both kids give him an offended look and he smiles himself. He couldn't have picked a better family if he'd tried, but funnily enough, his family picked him. Strange how those things worked, wasn't it? Nah, not really, he decided as he took another spoonful of ice cream. It worked out exactly like it was all supposed to.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Elli, I'd say I'm sorry about the feels here, but I'm not, at all.


End file.
